150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad Lecture

Department: Asian American Studies

Date and Time: May 7, 2019 | 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Event Location: Chinese American Museum 130 Paseo de la Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Event Details


150th Anniversary of the
Transcontinental Railroad
Lecture


Join us for a lecture and reception commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad with speaker and Associate Professor Julia H. Lee of the Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine.

Chinese American Museum
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Lecture: Gateway to Nature
130 Paseo de la Plaza,
Los Angeles, CA 90012


Reception at CAM 7:30 pm

On May 10, 1869, the railroads were joined in Promontory, Utah linking the east and west coasts. Facing poverty and civil war at home, laborers from Guangdong Province in China left home to make a living to support their families. Chinese railroad laborers were the first wave of Chinese immigrants in the United States and were recruited by railroad labor contractors to do dangerous and difficult jobs.This lecture will explore how the contributions of these workers to the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad were ignored and erased from the historical record and how Chinese American authors, artists, and descendants of the railroad workers have responded to this injustice as well as to the broader exclusion of Asians from the United States. 

This lecture is presented by the Friends of the Chinese American Museum with the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, and Gateway to Nature.

This program is free and open to the public; however, RSVPs are kindly requested.
To RSVP, visit chineseamericanmuseum.eventbrite.com or email rsvp@camla.org.
Check our website for other public programs and events at camla.org/upcomingevents.

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